UN pledges 10,000 body bags as Venezuela scrambles to bury more than 1,700 killed in earthquakes
The United Nations, on Monday, pledged to procure 10,000 body bags to support burial efforts after twin earthquakes killed more than 1,700 people in central-northern Venezuela.
The Venezuelan National Assembly leader, Jorge Rodriguez, earlier confirmed in an address on state television that the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes killed at least 1,719 people, injured 5,034, and rendered about 15,866 residents homeless.
Officials have yet to confirm the number of those missing, but about tens of thousands of people have yet to be accounted for.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Venezuela, Gianluca Rampolla del Tindaro, in a virtual news conference on Monday, said the surplus number of body bags promised is only in anticipation of more bodies being pulled from the rubble, since evacuation efforts are still ongoing and as the death toll keeps rising, but hopes the figure would not be that high.
Mr Tindaro said, “We are definitely looking at a number that is higher than the one already reported. I can give you a proxy indicator. We are procuring, and this is something that has been agreed with the authorities here, 10,000 body bags. That is somehow applying assumption, and it’s very sad, and we truly hope that actually the number is going to be smaller than that.
“Together with the search and rescue operations, we are focusing, together with the government, on providing emergency healthcare, shelter, food assistance, water and sanitation, and logistical support to ensure not only the storage but also the distribution of all the supplies arriving in the country, as well as protection.”
He also appreciated 27 countries for deploying over 2,000 rescuers and personnel, including over 160 search dogs, who helped rescue seven people from the rubble on Sunday alone, as rescue efforts continue.
The disaster affected seven states in the country, with La Guaira state and the Distrito Capital of Caracas suffering the greatest impact, while about 2,500 structures were damaged, with most of them collapsed completely.
About 500 aftershocks were also recorded after the initial earthquakes, including a magnitude 5.2 tremor, on Monday.
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